Making fabrics



Sept. 19,1944. M JONES 2,358,330

MAKING FABRICS Filed April 2, 1940 Patented Sept. 19, 1944 MAKING FABRICS Robert M. Jones, Biddeford, and Paul B. West, Saco, Maine, assignors to Saco-Lowell Shops, Biddeford, Maine, a corporation of Maine Application April '2, 1940, Serial No. 327,390

9 Claims. (01. 154-1) This invention relates to the production of text-- tile fabrics by direct processes which fix textile fibers of staple length together in the form of sheets without the usual operations of spinning and weaving and has for its principal object to facilitate the production of wider webs than would otherwise be possible with conventional machinery.

The copending patent application of Eugene C. Gwaltney, for improvements in making fabrics, Serial No. 327,403 filed on the same day as this application, discloses a process in which textile fibers of staple length are rendered straight and parallel in the form of an attenuated web by suitable mechanism shown for example as a drawing frame, and then are adhesively fixed in this condition. The process of that application is capable of being practiced by the use of various forms of mechanism which can straighten and parallelize the fibers, but the width of the web which can be produced is necessarily limited by the width of the mechanism by which the attenuated web is produced or through which it is passed. The present invention aims to overcome this limitation by providing an efilcient way of combining separately produced webs, so that a completed web of any desired width can be formed.

Other objects of invention and features of advantage and utility will be apparent from this specification and its drawing wherein the invention is explained by way of exampl In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the front or delivery rolls of a drawing frame combined with apparatus for joining together two separately produced webs and for fixing the fibers of these webs in their substantially straight, parallel condition: and

Figs, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are vertical sections on the lines 2-2, 8-3, 4-4 and 5-5, respectively of Fig, 1.

In Fig. 1 the delivery end of a drawing frame such as that shown in the above application is shown as having upper front roll sections II and ii" and cooperating lower front roll sections l2- and i2. It will be understood that in these and the preceding drawing rolls of the frame, the webs l3- and I3", of any textile fibers of staple length,

- for example cotton, are attenuated and have their fibers disposed in straight parallel condition.

As customary in drawing frames, the roll sections have a limited length which is usually not over eighteen inches for each roll section, due to the dimculty of securing even contact and pressure between rolls of greater length. The width of the drawn attenuatedweb is therefore limited'by the roll length, and may in a typical case be eighteen inches.

In the apparatus herein shown the two attenuated webs I I and I!" are operated on to cause their neighboring edges to meet, thus forming one wide web and this wide web then is subjected to the adhesive fixing operation described in the above application. As shown in the drawing of the present application the adhesive fixing of the web involves its passage between cooperating rolls it, It which are provided with trough-like partitions l8 holding an adhesive substance il with which the web is impregnated. V

This adhesive may be of any desirable and suitable kind, such for example as latex, starch, a thermoplastic such as parailln (in which case the rolls II, II are suitably heated), and the adhesive may have an aqueous or volatile solvent. One suitable adhesive having a volatile solvent consists of cellulose acetate in solution in acetone.

After passage through the rolls l4, It the web may be wound on a winding spindle 20 driven by a suitable drive roll 2| and if desired may be heated and dried by. passage over an electrically heated plate 23.

In order to cause the two separate webs l3 and II to merge and form a wide web I3 the apparatus is provided with a guide plate 25 shown in Fig. 1 and in section in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5. The plate 25 is provided with web-guiding means adapted to bring the adjacent lateral edges of the two webs l3 and i3" together so that they abut. Within the scope of the invention many forms of guiding means may be employed for this purpose. Preferably as in the illustrated form of mechanism, the guiding means is adapted to operate on both webs to widen them suflicientl so that their adjacent lateral edges abut.

Thus the downwardly inclined guide plate 25 is shown in the drawing as provided with two ridges 30 with curved surfaces, which ridges are centered at the middles of their respective pairs of front roll sections. As shown in the drawing, particularly in Fig. 2, the plate 25 has a plane surface at its edge adjacent to the front roll sections. The ridges 30 start near the front roll sections with slight height and with a width corresponding to that of a web It or l3", and progressively-increase in height relative to the remainder of the plate 25 and increase in width. meanwhile decreasing in radius of curvature, until at the lower or discharge end of the plate the two ridges 30 abut. The eflect of sliding down over these two ridges is for the two webs to be slightly widened approximately evenly throughout their widths, and finally to abut at the forward or discharge. end of the plate 25. This progressive widening and final abutting of the two webs is shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5. In Fig. 2 the webs Il and ii" are shown as having approximately the width at which they emerge from the front roll sections: in Fig. 3 they have each widened slightly; in Fig. 4 they have still further widened and thereby come nearer together; and finally at the stage represented by Fig. 5 they have abutted and are ready to pass as a widthwise continuous web to the fixing operation performed at the rolls I4 and I5.

During the conveyance of the webs from the front roll sections of the drawing frame to the rolls i4, i5, and the widening that takes place in this zone. the substantially straight and parallel condition of the fibers resulting from the drawing operation is preserved, so that this condition is fixed in the web by the rolls ,15.

Obviously more than two of the attenuated webs can be put together according to this invention to form a web of any width.

In place of applying a liquid adhesive at the rolls l4, l5, it is also within the scope of the invention to include within the material of the attenuated web a suitable thermoplastic, and then upon emergence from the front roll section of the drying frame to apply heat and pressure to the web to cause the thermoplastic to fix the web. Therefore in the claims where reference is made to adhesively fixing the fibers, it is to be understood that this term is not limited to the addition of an adhesive to the straight and parallelized fibers, but is intended to be broad enough to include also a fixing of the fibers by the bringing out of latent adhesive or cohesive properties in the web.

We claim:

1. That process of forming fabrics from unwoven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafiixed unwoven fibers, retaining the several separate webs in substantially the thin state in which they were prepared without substantially gathering said webs together in width and conveying said webs into abutting relation edge-t0- edge, and thereafter fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs adhesively to each other and adhesively Joining the webs into a single web consisting solely of the thus treated edge-to-edge abutted webs.

2. That process of forming fabrics from unwoven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafllxed unwoven fibers, spreading said webs laterally into abutting relation edge-to-edge,

thereby forming a composite sheet of wider width 3. That process of forming fabrics from unwoven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafiixed unwoven fibers, spreading said webs laterally and concomitantly conveying them into abutting relation edge-to-edge, thereby forming a composite sheet of wider width than the sum of the individual widths of the initially prepared webs, and thereafter fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs adhesively to each other and adhesively Joining the webs into a single web consisting solely of the thus treated edge-to-edge abutted webs.

4. That process of forming fabrics from unwoven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafilxed attenuated fibers disposed in straight parallel condition, retaining the several separate webs in substantially the thin state in which they were prepared without substantially gathering said webs together in width and conveying said webs into abutting relation edge-to-edge, thereby forming a composite sheet of wider width than the sum of the individual widths of the initially prepared webs, and thereafter fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs adhesively to eachother and adhesively joining the webs into a single web consisting solely of the thus treated edge-to-edge abutted webs.

5. That process of forming fabrics from unwoven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafilxed attenuated fibers disposed in straight parallel condition, graduall spreading said webs laterally into abutting relation edge-to-edge,

thereby forming a composite sheet of wider width than the sum of the individual widths of the initially prepared webs, and thereafter fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs adhesively to each -woven textile fibers which comprises the steps of preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafilxed attenuated fibers disposed in straight parallel condition, gradually spreading said webs laterally and concomitantly conveying them into abutting relation edge-to-edge, therebyforming a composite sheet of wider width than the sum of the individual widths of the initially prepared webs, and thereafter fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs adhesively to each other and adhesively joining the webs into a single web consisting solely of the thus treated edge-to-edge abutted webs.

7. Apparatus for forming a web of unwoven textile fibers comprising means for preparing a plurality of separate thin webs of unafllxed unwoven, attenuated, substantially parallel fibers, means for advancing said webs in parallel paths, means for gradually spreading said webs laterally while the fibers remain attenuated and substantially parallel to bring said webs into abutting relation edge-to-edge, thereby forming a composite sheet of wider width than the sum of the individual widths of the initially prepared webs, and means for thereafter adhesively fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs to each other and adhesively joining the webs into a single web con-. sisting solely of the thus treated edge-to-edge pared webs, and means for thereafter adhesively fixing the fibers of said plurality of webs to each other and adhesively joining the webs into a single web consisting solely of the thus treated edge-toedge abutted webs.

9. Apparatus for forming a web of unwoven textile fibers comprising drawing rolls by which are produced a plurality of separate thin webs of unaflixed attenuated fibers disposed in substantially straight parallel condition, a plate provided with a plurality of web guiding means, a pair of rolls by which said webs are advanced over said plate in parallel paths, said guiding means gradually spreading said webs laterally as they are advanced until they abut edge-to-edge while preserving the straight parallel condition of the 'fibers, thereby forming a composite sheet of wider 10 of the thus treated edge-to-edge abutted webs.

' ROBERT M. JONES.

PAUL B. WEST. 

